Jesus among the gods: Early Christology in the Greco-Roman World

by Michael F. Bird

Overview

After several centuries of controversy, the early church came to an uneasy consensus that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. In his divinity, orthodox Christianity claimed, he shared fully in the nature of the uncreated creator God. But was this doctrinal position crafted from whole cloth in the era of the great ecumenical councils? How did earlier Christ-followers understand Jesus in light of their convictions about the one supreme deity and in the context of a cultural milieu saturated with gods?

In Jesus among the gods, Michael Bird gives renewed attention to divine ontology—what a god is—in relation to literary representations of Jesus. Most studies of the origins of early Christology focus on christological titles, various functions, divine identity, and types of worship. The application of ontological categories to Jesus is normally considered something that only began to happen in the second and third centuries as the early church engaged in platonizing interpretations of Jesus. Bird argues, to the contrary, that ontological language and categories were used to describe Jesus as an eternal, true, and unbegotten deity from the earliest decades of the nascent church.

Through comparison with representative authors such as Philo and Plutarch, and a comprehensive analysis of Jesus and various intermediary figures from Greco-Roman religion and ancient Judaism, Bird demonstrates how early accounts of Jesus both overlapped with and diverged from existing forms of religious expression. However Jesus resembled the various divine agents of Greco-Roman religion and Second Temple Judaism, the chorus of early Christian witnesses held Jesus to be simultaneously an agent of and an analogue with the God of Israel. Among the gods, Jesus stood in clear relief, a conviction that may have been refined over time but that belongs to the emerging heart of Christian confession.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481316750
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2022
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	530,610
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael F. Bird is the Academic Dean and Lecturer in Theology and New Testament at Ridley College.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Part One: Jesus and Ancient Divinity
1. Problematizing Jesus' Divinity
2. The Search for Divine Ontology
Part Two: Jesus and Intermediary Figures
3. Putting Jesus in His Place: Scholarship on Early Christology and Intermediary Figures
4. Jesus and the "In-Betweeners": Comparing Early Christologies and Intermediary Figures
5. Setting Jesus apart from Demiurges, Deities, Daemons, and Divi

What People are Saying About This

Professor of New Testament Studies Jörg Frey

Bird's new book marks a fascinating new step within the 'New History-of-Religions School.' Using a wide range of sources beyond the New Testament, it combines Jewish and Gentile perspectives on gods and deities. Jesus' divinity is explained not merely from Jewish traditions in the context of Jewish monotheism, but also in consideration of categories from the Greco-Roman world and its various concepts of divinity and deities. Thus, the category of 'ontology' is reinterpreted and used in a nonanachronistic, nonphilosophical, and more strictly source-oriented manner.

Janelle Peters

Bird masterfully develops contemporary Jewish monotheism with evidence from Jewish sources such as Philo, Pseudo-Philo, and the Jewish Sibylline Oracles. Arguing that Nicene categories should not be anachronistically placed on Jesus, he looks for ways in which the earliest Christian movements could have sprung from this hotbed of Jewish monotheism. What Bird finds are angelology and messiology. He adeptly traces these shared aspects of ancient Jewish and Christian groups as they appear in diverse permutations in well-known patristic authors such as Irenaeus and more obscure figures such as Elkasai, a baptizer whose followers might have rejected the writings of Paul.

Robyn Whitaker

Michael Bird examines the divine ontology of Jesus in earliest Christianity in this bold and expansive new book. Taking into account both Greco-Roman and Second Temple Jewish understandings of divinity, Bird seeks to dismantle entrenched ideas about the lateness of ontological thinking when it comes to Jesus' divinity and challenges readers to transcend the divide between so-called functional and ontological Christology. As such, this is a thought-provoking and significant contribution to the conversation about Jesus' divinity.

Lynn H. Cohick

Michael Bird’s Jesus among the gods is a wealth of information about early Christologies in early Jewish and Greco-Roman settings. In this well-written and well-organized volume, Bird examines primary sources and current research with encyclopedic thoroughness, offering a fresh, nuanced view of Christ’s uniqueness in light of correspondences with ancient intermediary figures. A must-read for students of early Christianity.

Edwina Murphy

A chance encounter with Isis and Osiris in a secondhand bookstore leads the protagonist to embark on an arduous journey through the celestial realms of divine beings (and the terrestrial realms of scholarship) until he arrives at a knowledge of the truth. No, it’s not the latest installment in the Marvel Universe, but rather Michael Bird’s marvelous volume on divine ontologies and intermediaries in the Greco-Roman world. His extensive engagement with the sources and evenhanded analysis make him a sure-footed guide for those seeking to understand early Christology.

David Capes

With his characteristic good humor and judicious attention to detail, Michael Bird pushes the conversation regarding early Christologies in new and constructive directions. Having an ear attuned to both Jewish and Greco-Roman voices, Bird offers a straightforward taxonomy of what constituted 'divinity' in the ancient world and makes a serious case that elements of early Christologies are inherently ontological.

Editorial Reviews

A masterwork of historically informed theology, Bird’s Jesus Among the Gods will compel scholars to revise the standard narrative of how Christology developed.

OnScript - Matthew W. Bates

"… readers interested in an overview of the relevant material and current debates in this area of scholarship would do well to read Bird’s contribution."

Concordia Journal - Kendall A. Davis

"Bird’s scholarship is a monumental contribution to the field of early Christology. His mastery of both primary and secondary sources is profound. Bird’s engagement with patristic writings, New Testament Apocrypha, Rabbinic literature, early Christian writings, Greco-Roman authors, and multiple other relevant texts highlights the copious amount of literature needed to properly grasp early Christology in the Greco-Roman world. This is a valuable book for those not only seeking to gain a broader and deeper comprehension of early Christologybut also wishing to engage with the Greco-Roman world."

Calvin Theological Journal - Zachary R. Kime

All in all this work has been written both with great erudition and with a clear passion. It is a fundamental study in the continuing search for the origins and developments of christology.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review - Riemer Roukema